Front Street Weekly; 822

[Music] Tonight on Front Street Weekly. [Gun shot] Military assault rifles. Reporter Rod Minet looks at the controversy surrounding semi-automatic weapons and the right to bear arms. And reporter Vivian Kundenny travels to Opal Creek. The timber industry is fighting for access to old growth timber and environmentalists are fighting to protect a resource they claim is more valuable than money. And finally do-si-do. Reporter Steve Lobell shows us one of the state's oldest forms of recreation: square dancing. [Minet] Good evening and welcome to this edition of Front Street Weekly. Tonight we'll be looking at the

controversy surrounding a type of gun: military style semi-automatic assault rifles. Both sides in this debate disagree sharply over whether these weapons pose a growing danger to society. In fact it wasn't until a recent tragic incident that many people knew very much about the military assault rifles. January 17th, 1989: families learn a gunman has opened fire on a playground full of children at the Cleveland Elementary school in Stockton, California. 5 children are killed. 30 other people are wounded. The man pulling the trigger is a drifter with a long criminal record. In a matter of several minutes, Patrick Purdy turned a playground into a war zone, firing 105 bullets from an AK 47 semi-automatic military assault rifle, later ending his own life by turning a gun on himself. [Voice] The weapon, as it was found [Minet] Purdy bought his weapon at a gun shop in

Oregon. Except for the use of an alias, it was a legal purchase. How such a man could so easily buy a deadly weapon has sparked heated debate across the country over whether assault rifles should be banned or regulated. [Victim's father speaking through an interpreter] When they called me they told me about my daughter getting killed. All of a sudden I dropped and I fainted and passed out. [Minet] Memory of the shooting still haunts ?Choon Kuwit?. His 8 year old daughter ?Rom Chun? was one of those murdered; a tragedy all the more compelling because these Cambodian refugees had come to America to escape violence, to escape the bloody killing fields of their native land. [?Choon Kuwit? speaking Cambodian] [Interpreter] When we all escaped from our country we thought all of the tragedies were left behind. We could never imagine that this thing would happen over here in a peaceful country. If she were hit by a car accidentally then I could accept that. But this is too much for me. This is too painful for me. I can't accept this. I can't understand why this

happened. [Minet] A rice farmer in Cambodia, ?Choon Kuwit? and his family came to America five years ago eventually settling in Stockton. ?Kuwit? is in poor health, unable to speak English and has no apparent job skills. He and his family live on welfare. Much of their hopes for a better life rested with ?Rom Choon?. The parents remember her as a bright little girl full of promise, perhaps one day becoming a teacher in her new homeland. At the funeral the family said goodbye to those dreams, but not the memory of little ?Rom?. [?Choon Kuwit? speaking through an interpreter] I cry many times. I can't remember how many times I've been crying. Sometimes when I stay home alone I look at her picture and when I clean it I cry again. At lunchtime I remember she ate with me. It reminds me of her and I cry again. When I get into her room I see her clothes lying there, but she isn't there and then I cry again. I could never imagine that she would get killed this way.

[Low playground sounds]. [Jenna Gang] I think the whole playground went into an immediate shock. If you were out in the field like hunting you might hear a boom or a boom or something. This was just constant deh-deh-deh-deh right across. There was there was no space between the next shot. And I mean that was the thing, that there was no space to run either between each shot. I was standing there and I remember saying to myself out loud even, "I'm shot", "I'm shot". "He shot me". [Minet] Jenna Gang, a teacher at Clayton Elementary, had yard duty the day of the shooting. She was wounded in the left leg. [Gang] It entered through the rear of my leg as it went through. It's - the soundwave broke the bone, the main bone. And then it just came out the front over to the side and just exploded as it came out. They said little bit larger than the

size of a grapefruit. [Minet] Gang is lucky. She will regain the use of her leg but it will take months of rehabilitation. Born and raised in Stockton, she's been a 2nd grade teacher at Clayton Elementary for 10 years. Never one who was interested in gun control issues before the shooting. Gang now says she favors a ban on the semi-automatic assault rifles. [Gang] This is not a gun, what he used. This is my definition. A gun is what people would use to hunt a deer or an animal or anything or target shooting. This was a weapon and weapons are for war and this was literally to kill us. I really, I, it it was made to destroy and it has destroyed my leg, I mean [gun shots]. [Minet] The semi-automatic assault rifle is a rapid fire weapon. Each pull of the trigger fires one round. As many as 75 to 100 bullets can be shot without reloading. They are the civilian versions of military guns. Critics say they were designed primarily for combat use,

killing and maiming large numbers of people quickly and have no legitimate sporting or hunting value. There was also concern about the weapon's growing misuse among drug dealers and gangs. Gun owners like Pat Matisse say while the Stockton shooting was tragic, banning military assault weapons is not the answer. [Matisse] Banning the weapon would not have caused him to not commit that act of violence. In our society, which is a free society, there are going to be atrocities committed because of our freedoms, abuses in a lot of areas because of the freedoms that we are granted. And that's part of the price of living in a free society. [1st voice] I hope the next time the U.S. designs a rifle they'll make it adjustable with a ?dime?. [2nd voice] Well they've done that. [1st voice] Rather than with a bullet. [2nd voice] The new one comes with [gun shot]. [Minet] Matisse grew

up around guns and has been shooting all his life . He learned how to handle them safely and responsibly from his father Jack. [Jack] How about a little competition here Pat? [Matisse] Hah? [Jack] How about a little competition? [Matisse] Oh I don't know. What you want to bet? How much you want to lose? [Jack] I'd go a quarter. {Matisse] OK. [Jack] How about a Burgerville? [Minet] 22 year old Pat is studying to become a commercial airline pilot. Right now he manages a gun shop in Portland. Owner of several military style assault rifles, Matisse uses them for target shooting. [Matisse] I like them because they're accurate and reliable and fun to shoot. I shoot a couple of different kinds of competition that require their use. But mostly because they're fun. I also hunt with them. [several gun shots]. [Minet] Right now in Oregon assault rifles are sold like any other hunting rifle or shotgun. No waiting period. No background check. A buyer need only fill out a Federal form answering, among other things, whether he has ever been convicted of a felony or has been

judged mentally ill. How do you know that someone is going to come in here and lie on that form and walk out with one of those guns? [Matisse] Basically at the moment we don't have a way to do that. [Minet] Matisse says the federal government is studying a system for instantly screening gun buyers. Oregon lawmakers are also considering a bill that would set up background checks on assault rifle purchasers on a trial basis. Even so Matisse says such safeguards aren't fool proof and claims the real problem lies with the criminal justice system. [Matisse] The system had more than one opportunity to take Patrick Purdy off the street and lock him up and keep him there. The weapon that he chose to go out and commit his final act of vengeance, I guess on society, really doesn't bear too much on why all that occurred. [Minet] One of the biggest problems in this gun debate is how to distinguish military style assault rifles legally from other types of semi-automatics. Matisse says functionally there's no

difference. And he used a hunting rifle to show us. [Matisse] There are many different places that sell higher capacity magazines than this 5 round magazine. And this is a semi-automatic rifle, one that can be fired, to quote the people that keep raving about these as fast as you pull the trigger. [Harold Murray] You see, they're the street sweeper, made in America. [Minet] Then there are gun owners like Harold Murray. [Murray] $595 ?throws? 12 rounds in less than three seconds. Now Is that a sporting gun? Who needs that gun other than a SWAT team or the army. [Minet] Murray is a Portland gunsmith who is troubled by the proliferation of assault weapons. He refuses to sell military style assault rifles in his store. [Murray] I think people claiming this assault type rifle is a hunting rifle is making every legitimate hunter or something like some trigger happy Rambo.

I don't favor the sportsman having them for a hunting rifle cause they're not suitable for hunting rifles. [Minet] But by law Oregon hunters are limited to five shot magazines. To Harold Murray a rifle that can shoot much more than that number just doesn't make sense. [Murray] If you're going to take a rapid fire weapon, semi-automatics such as this that holds 30 or 40 rounds and shoot an animal with it, the meat's not going to be fit to eat; there would be nothing left to eat. It stands to reason; you make a hunting rifle for hunting. It's good for that purpose. You make an assault rifle ii's made for hunting people. It's good for that purpose. [Minet] A lifetime member of the NRA, Murray says he's not for banning military style semi-automatics, but he does favor owners registering them. He says another concern is the relative ease of converting the weapons into a fully automatic machine guns. [Murray] This AK47 was brought into a lot of popularity here in the last few weeks. It's quite a job to convert that over to full automatic but it can be done. In a lot of the other ones it can be made into full automatic very

easily. I personally don't think that person ?don't stop? is going to use that rifle very well and by the grace of God he didn't, because if he did he would he would kill a lot more people. [Minet] Fears of another Stockton tragedy helped prompt some fortunate states including Oregon to consider either banning or regulating military style semi-automatic rifles. Controls are also being eyed at the Federal level. It is the memory of how one man, armed with a gun on this playground, caused so much death and destruction. [Matisse] He could have also just as easily taken his car and driven it through that little schoolyard of children and killed a lot more. Banning the weapon would not have caused him to not commit that act of violence. [Gang] It's a different story when you stand on the other side of the gun. And that gun was facing you and no place to go. And the power of it is unreal. And you can't tell me that you need

something like that. [Matisse] They're not inherently more deadly or more dangerous than guns that look more socially acceptable. [Minet] The lessons of Stockton will likely be debated for years. For ?Choon Kowit? there are a few answers. He just misses his daughter. [Kowit speaking in background] [Interpreter] I miss her very very much. I don't think about anything else. Just the tragedy. [Music] [Vivian Kundenny] It seems like lately every time you pick up a paper or turn on the television there's news about another lawsuit followed by environmental groups against the timber industry and that's caused some wood workers to speak out and fight for their survival.

[Voice shouting] And we need to let everyone we know that we'll never give up. Never give up. ?It's happened? enough. [Crowd cheering] [Kundenny] March 30th 1989. It's the second time during this legislative session that these folks who work in the timber industry have rallied on the steps of the State Capitol to protest the Opal Creek State Park bill. [Voice] One thing more I want you to remember when you come down to this valley, and you spend those hard-earned bucks if you work out there in the rain ?just junkers? to get or standing on the end of that green chain ?pulling veneer? for lumber. You tell those people that are taking those dollars where they come from. They're timber dollars. [Crowd cheering] [Kundenny] The bill would have set aside over 31,000 acres of pristine land in the Willamette National Forest. Backers claim the area contains one of the largest stands of old growth in the Western Cascades. [Voice] What we're trying to do is save that one small segment of national forest that's left that hasn't been decimated. [Sound of chain saw] [Kundenny] But these people, from the North Santiam Canyon, whose jobs depend on the timber harvested from

our public lands, don't want to see any more of Oregon's forests locked up. So workers left the woods and made their stand. On Tuesday, April 11th, the Opal Creek State Park proposal was shelved, but other versions of the bill are likely to surface later. [Sound of tree falling] The Opal Creek issue, "Save it or harvest it", is the latest clash in the longstanding tug of war between environmental groups and the timber industry. And although the park proposal is on hold for now, one mill worker's suspicions are not. [Don Hinkley] ....starts...and they get it, there's no stopping 'em......they'll just keep right on going on the line? [Kundenny] So - [Hinkley] That's just like a rich person, he makes a million dollars he's not happy with that. He wants to be making another two, three million dollars. The more they get the bigger they get, I think. [Kundenny] And when you say "they" - [Hinkley] Environmentalists. [Kundenny] Don Hinkley works at a local mill in the Santiam canyon. His wife Jean is a waitress. [Jean] As long as we can keep workin', guys can keep workin' we'll keep fightin' 'em. [Kundenny] The Hinkleys became political activists this year. They both went to

Salem to protest against the park proposal. They say their family has been quiet too long. [Jean] If you just sit back and take it all in and just listen and you don't say anything and you don't voice your opinion, then nobody's going to know how we feel. [Kundenny] The Hinkleys say they feel like other families around here. They don't want to lose their town, schools, jobs, or their way of life. [Jean] And if the mills and stuff shut down then everybody's going to go their own separate ways. They're not going to be able to stay together like they are. [Don Hinkley] Just like me, I just have to throw what I could in the car and take off and leave her behind and see what I can find. Why do it? [Kundenny] Don says he's been doing a lot of thinking lately about Oregon's changing timber industry. [Don] In the past it didn't bother me a bit and I didn't worry about it or nothin'. But as far as right now, yeah. I can get to thinking about it; I actually get scared. And I've been out of looking for a job for darn long I wouldn't know how to go about doing that. I just like chasing a girl now. [Jean laughs]

I'd have to go sit in the back corner someplace and wonder what the heck to do next. {Kundenny] What Don and the snow loggers do next might be out of their hands. Right now, there's a Federal injunction against timber sales on some of the Pacific Northwest public lands. The 60 day ban means that more than one billion board feet is off limits to chainsaws. Translation: enough lumber to build over 83,000, 3 bedroom homes can't be cut until a judge decides how logging affects the spotted owl's habitat. [Low, inaudible voice] ...stacks and stacks of wood. [Inaudible voice] [Barry Martin] And we're looking at trying to get a log export action going in the Coos Bay. [Kundenny] Barry Martin is an ex-social worker. Now he's a carpenter. Karen Wood is a self-employed bookkeeper. Both Karen and Barry are members of [inaudible]. First. The environmental group uses radical methods of civil disobedience at times to stop logging and to protest what they say is the destruction of our planet. [Karen Wood] What about the earth? What about what about the fact that our old growth is

disappearing and that's an ecosystem in itself and it's an incredibly diverse ecosystem. What about the fact that we are driving species to extinction which we have no right to do. That is just scary. [Don Hinkley] What right do they got to put me and my family out of work [inaudible] [Kundenny] And although Karen says she's concerned about people like the Hinkley's, to her there's more at stake here than people's jobs. [Karen] You know to me the loss of a way of life is regrettable and certainly I feel for these people but I cannot I cannot stand by and watch the loss of an entire species to the world. It's a much larger issue. It's not just jobs in the economy; there are no jobs on a dead planet. [Male voice] We're out here trying to make a living and when a certain interest group tries to take that away from you it makes people very very angry. And I mean. I'm just one in a bunch . [chuckles] [Kundenny] The 27 acre Willis Stand is being cleared today by the Hider brothers. Steve's worked in the woods for

the past 20 years. His dreams of starting his own logging company came true about a year ago. But now his future, like the weather, is unpredictable. [Steve] Just don't know what kind of future you have anymore and it's, for me, it's probably close to being too late to do something else. This competes with what you make here, that you can make out here. [Sound of chainsaw] Most of us that are gettin' - that's been doin' this a long time, it's all we know. What else can we do, you know, find a job that pays $3.50 an hour. How do you support a family on something like that. You can't. [Karen] Some of them I think could retrain. Obviously not all of them. These can be difficult for many of them and not all of them will need to. The timber industry is not going to go belly up. It's still going to be here. It's going to be different. It's not going to be as large but it's going to be here.

[Male voice] My dad, he's gonna have a hard time finding another job. [Linda}] You guys going back to school to learn how to run a computer? [Kundenny] There's no clear cut answer to Linda's question or to Karen's predictions. [Karen] We've got some work cut out for us in this state, because we're going to have a lot of unemployed loggers and mill workers on our hands. I don't care whether we manage to save some of these places or not. Sooner or later the cutting is going to stop. [Kundenny] It's been said that as timber goes, so goes Oregon. And right now the timber industry is doing pretty good. Prices and demand are at a near all time high. Close to 70,000 people are on the job and Federal timber receipts were up by 10% in 1988. But the lumber company owners say that their inventory of logs is running out. Soon they won't have the supply to meet the demand. People here worry that the upcoming Federal court decisions will fall towards the environmentalists. The trees would remain standing on our public lands but the boughs of Oregon's timber based economy could come crashing down. [Sound of tree falling] Opal Creek is the local mosaic piece in a complex national puzzle. But families,

jobs and towns aren't games to the people who live here. [Don Hinkley] Been preaching too long, too hard, too much. They're getting greedy. [Kundenny] The Hinkleys, like other folks here, don't want every day to be like this quiet Sunday in the North Santiam Canyon. [Male voice] Kinda like a slow dance. Yeah [Inaudible] a slow dance. [Music] [Steve Lobell] What's the term "left grand" mean? Or how about "ocean wave", or '"spin chain the gears"? There are about 10,000 folks in Oregon that know the answer to these questions and they'll share them with you in our next story. It's guaranteed to set your foot a-tappin'. [Music] [Young male voice] All my friends that don't square dance, they're all- they have to just work so hard to have fun. You know, usually the first thing they do is they have to start making fun of you for it, you know, I mean the initial thing is they make a joke. They think I'm some type of Oakie or something,

came out of the cow patties, stompin' and a-hootin' up every Saturday night. But then I found almost all of them, immediately after, you know, they make the first joke, they start getting interested; they're like, maybe they'll try it too. I started, I went into lessons at seven years old. And so I've been taking it and been doing it ever since then. And once I got- I didn't want to at first you know, I was a typical, "Aw, I'm not gonna go square dancing for anybody". And then once I got in the first lesson, I never stopped. [Laughs] The people, to me are just, they're the greatest. You can't match square dancers for anything. Everybody is just always so much fun and you can't have so much fun anywhere else. [Verbal square dance calling in the background] [Calling continues] [Female voice] If you can count to 4 and if you know you're right from your left, or I should say count to 8 maybe. Really.

and know your right from your left, you've got it made. And you know how to listen. [Music and dance instruction]. When you learn to square dance, you have to learn something like a new language because the names of these movements that you do are never heard of anywhere else. There isn't any place else you hear of a left allemande and a right and left grand, but you can go to Japan or- or Germany and dance the same thing. [Music, dance instruction] It's an entertainment but it's also a challenge. [Music and singing]. Within a year you're going to be a real, real good dancer. [Music and calling] The friendships that you build up in square

dancing are always so strong. There's that people like to go and dance. This is the proof. [Shouting, applause] It really is good physical therapy, no matter what age. And I love it. [Laughs] It opens up our life. It absolutely has opened up our life since we learned to square dance. [Music, square dance calling] We have round dancing that goes along with our calling, with our square dancing too. And that's a couples dance. It's like a pattern dance. I- it's a- it's a pre-planned foot movement on that, and the person who's doing the queuing for that tells the whole floor what to do, just like a caller tells the ?pro? what to do in square dancing. It's nothing like the old barn dance. [Music, dance instruction].

[Music, dance instruction] [Music, singing, dance instruction] [Music, singing, dance instruction]. [Male voice] 30 years ago I had a wife drag me in and I was sliding in with my back heels all the way, saying no way do I want to get into this. That was 30 years ago and I've never stopped. I've been dancin' ever since. [Music, singing, dance instruction] [Music, singing, dance instruction] Well, after you've danced 30 years, you just want to get into it with both feet and both hands and I took up calling about 12 years ago and I felt, I dunno, a need to want to teach people to do this. [Music, singing, dancing] [Music, singing, dancing]

But we just got a lot of nice people in the square dance world and that's the element of fun, I think. [Male voice] The attitude we use with a dancer is we use a kind of an excitement thing to get it going And it - We're kind of rowdy anyway and it's just, I dunno, it just blends from the stage and falls down onto the dancers. They get wrapped up in it. [Music, dance instruction] [Music, dance instruction] [Music, dance instruction] [Male voice] I felt, I dunno, a need to want to teach people to do this and I've been doing that ever since, teaching oh 3 to 4 classes a year and just turned out a lot of dancers and it's really rewarding to take somebody who has never danced in their

entire life and then see him out on the floor dancing very nicely maybe six months after the class graduated. That's all the payment a person really needs. [Male voice] It's a violent sport sometimes, but you gotta do what you gotta do. [Female voice] Like any skill, you have to do it to stay good at it and it's- it just becomes addictive. [Male voice] We would drive hundreds of miles to go to a square dance and it's the element of fun, I think.